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96
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
soil;-loose soil, doubtless, means food, and this (set of bricks) is the essence: he thus joins and unites the food and its essence.
6. And, again, as to why with loose soil;-the Stomabhâgâs are the heart, and the loose soil is the pericardium: he thus encloses the heart in the pericardium.
7. And, again, as to why with loose soil;-this fire-altar is the year, and by means of the soilcoverings of the layers he divides it: those first four layers are four seasons. And having laid down the Stomabhâgâs, he throws loose soil thereon: that is the fifth layer, that is the fifth season.
8. Here now they say, 'Since the other layers conclude with Lokamprinâs (space-filling bricks), and no space-filler is laid down in this (layer): what, then, is the space-filler therein?' The space-filler, surely, is yonder sun, and this layer is he; and this is of itself1 a space-filling layer. And what there is above this (layer) up to the covering of soil that is the sixth layer, that is the sixth season.
9. He then throws down the loose soil. Thereon he lays down the Vikarni and the naturally-perforated (brick); he bestrews them with chips of gold, and places the fire thereon: that is the seventh layer, that is the seventh season.
10. But, indeed, there are only six of them; for as to the Vikarni and the Svayam-âtrinnâ, they belong to the sixth layer.
11. And, indeed, there are only five of them,-on the other (layers) he throws down the loose soil with a prayer, and here (he does so) silently: in that
1 Or, and he (the sun) himself.
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